Ann Morris Maddy aka Granny Parsons

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 39
#52ancestors
Prompt: Should Be a Movie

"James was swimming the river, carrying a log chain, and just before reaching the bank, he sank to rise no more.[1]"  In those few minutes his wife, Ann, became a widow and a single mother. 

James Maddy, who served under George Washington, drowned near their property in the part of Augusta County that later became part of Rockingham County, Virginia. Ann Morris married James around 1759. He drowned probably in 1783 but certainly before June 1784.  They had twelve children, seven who gained adulthood and were the ancestors of a family that spread across the United States. Much of Ann's life can be documented from when and where her children were born but there were many pioneer women who had large families.  Ann Morris Maddy aka Granny Parsons was more than just the mother of a large family and her life really should be made into a movie. 

Ann was born in Orange County, Virginia in 1740. Family tradition states that her brother was Robert Morris of Revolutionary War fame, who signed the Declaration of Independence and helped finance the war.  However, this seems unlikely to me as much as I would like to believe it.  Robert Morris was born in England and lived in Pennsylvania. She was not listed in either his will or his Father's will. All the records that have been found for Ann are in Virginia and West Virginia. There has been some indication that her father was John Morris who lived on Goose Creek in what is now southern Loudoun County, near James Maddy when he was a child[2].  But either way, as her biography on Find A Grave[3] states, "we can all be very proud of her for her own sake." 

After James' death, Ann immediately moved her family to Monroe Co., West Virginia near old family friends, the Jacob Miller family.  Despite the distance, Ann traveled back and forth several times by horseback to settle the estate . Ann was an accomplished rider and very capable of taking care of the estate business.  While on a trip back to their previous residence, she traveled alone through the mountains carrying a large amount of money concealed in a belt under her clothing. Being tired she spent the night in the home of a settler in the mountains. "The settler guessed that she had money, and being avaricious and a murder at heart, he determined to have her money. The next morning, he kindly (?) offered to show her a nearer way than the regular trail. She accepted his kind offer and coming to a lonely place over a ravine he told her he knew she had money, that he intended to have it, and that he would throw her oer the cliff, and no one would be the wiser. She descended from her horse, as if accepting her fate and asked that he turn his back as the money was in her clothing. Probably she had a more complicated job to get it than she would today. He obligingly turned away, and she made a dash at him, threw him off his balance and over the cliff[4]".   She then proceeded on her way. 

In 1785, Ann married George W. Parsons and eventually gained the name "Granny Parsons".  She was a well known midwife and practical nurse in the area and was known for riding a big black stallion at all hours of the day and night going to help those who needed it.  Often as people heard her gallop past, they would say, "There goes Granny Parsons to help someone in trouble[5]."  She was helping people well into what most would consider old age.  Depending on which records that you consult, Granny Parsons lived to be 104 to 107.  She spent her last days on the Lively farm with her daughter, Sarah Maddy Lively and was buried in the Cottrel Lively Cemetery in Monroe County, West Virginia. 

Ann Morris Maddy Parsons lived through the Revolutionary War and certainly had a life worth remembering in the movies.

---

[1] Olive Maddy, US Maddys (Oskaloosa, Iowa: Private Printing).

[2] John F. Vallentine, "The Robert Morris-Ann Morris Maddy Tradition" The American Genealogist 49, no 3 (July 1973): 129-137

[3] "Ann Morris Maddy Parsons", Find A Grave, accessed September 20, 2020, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5358309/ann-maddy_parsons

[4] Maddy, US Maddys.

[5] Maddy, US Maddys.

Photo by Guy B. Langsdale from FindAGrave.com

On the Road Again: Search for the Cemetery

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 38
Prompt: On the Map
#52ancestors

 Several years ago, my family had a camping weekend on the old family farm.  Though the house was gone, it was the perfect place for a relaxing fun filled family campout. As with most family reunions, we had really good food, lots of conversation, games, and fun.  You can't imagine the fun of having a hide and seek at night with family from preschoolers to those in their 70s.

 As we sat around the fire one night, we went around the circle telling stories about the farm and what we remembered. There were both funny and poignant memories. The older generation remembered their brother, Bobby Glenn, who only lived a few hours.  Gwonda was almost 8 years old when he was born and she remembered her Grandmother lovingly wrapping him up and putting him near the stove to stay warm.

 When Bobby Glenn passed, his father and grandmother took him to a country cemetery near their farm. His mother was very sick after he was born and when he passed she wasn't able to go to the cemetery.  Months later, when she was well enough to go, neither her husband nor mother in law could remember exactly where they buried Bobby Glenn. 

 As memories of Bobby Glenn were shared around the campfire, I mentioned that I wished I knew the name of the cemetery where he was buried. To my surprise, two of my Uncles said that they knew where it was but couldn't remember the name.  They offered to take me there the next day. So the next day, we loaded up the car, two uncles, an aunt, a cousin, and me to set off for the cemetery that wasn't very far away.

 We drove up and down the country roads looking for the cemetery with first Teddy Mac giving directions and then Teddy Gene.  The rest of us were along for the ride and more family stories. After awhile, it seemed like we were going up and down the same roads, but both of my Uncles were sure that it was around there somewhere.  Neither one are the type to give up. The three of us in the back seat, cousin Nancy,  Aunt Sadie, and me were perfectly happy driving around, talking and teasing the Uncles about their directions.  I'm sure that those left at the farm wondered what happened to us because the cemetery was supposed to be only 15 minutes away. 

Eventually, we saw a farmer on his tractor in a field.  He had to be local and hopefully would know where the cemetery was located.  My 70 something year old Uncle, stopped the car on the side of the road and traipsed across the field to talk to the farmer. He came back with new directions.  It turns out that we were turning around one road short of where we needed to go, so the cemetery was just a little farther than we had gone up to that point.  We went up to the next cross road, traveled about another mile to the next road and turned left.  Sure enough, there was Denton Cemetery on the right.  Now I knew the name and where it was located. 

We spent some time walking in the cemetery and found near the back fence a row of children and infant graves. None of the graves had names, but all were marked with natural stones. The chain link fence is obviously a new addition and wasn't there when Bobby Glen was buried, but the chances are that one of those graves is his. 

Recently, I was back in the area and had a little time before heading home to Texas. We decided to visit Denton Cemetery again.  This time because we knew the name of the cemetery and had Google Maps, we were able to drive straight to it. But it was not nearly as memorable as that first trip.

 

 

Bobby Glenn McCarley

May 24, 1938

Son of Gladys Mamie Sample and Thomas Osa McCarley

A principal makes a difference

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 37

Back to School

#52ancestors

 I decided that one story this week wasn't enough because my Dad had an amazing story of going back to school, too.

My Dad's family didn't seem to think as much about education as my Mom's family did. At least I never heard anyone talk about it much.  They weren't against education, just had more important things to do.  My Grandpa Golightley only had a 6th grade education and my Grandma graduated from the 7th grade.  It didn't mean as much then as most people started working very young on the farm and it wasn't as important in making a living. 

My Grandpa wasn't much of a farmer so by the time he was grown he was driving a truck mostly hauling gravel for road construction at first.  That was a time when many of the interstate  and local roads were being built. A time that bridged between a man having a horse and buggy and owning a car.  At one time, he owned his own gravel pit and hauled gravel for local road construction near Wellington, Kansas.

Dad and his Father with the gravel dump truck

 By the time my Dad was 14, he had a commercial drivers license and was working with his Dad hauling gravel.  Then they moved from Kansas to the San Antonio area where they started hauling produce from the Valley up through Oklahoma, Kansas, and North Dakota.  It was while they were hauling produce that the family moved to Marlow, Oklahoma.  Dad started high school in Marlow, but when the harvest started early in the Spring, he was back on the road with his Dad.  Once the Fall harvest was done, he would start school again.  That meant that he usually only went to school from sometime in October until around April each year.

School work didn't come easy for him. He read slowly, but he was good with math. After all, math was something you needed when you worked.  When he retired and had more time to read, he became an avid reader as he started reading much faster.

Dad was very fond of his principal, L.L. Teakell, at Marlow High. He told of several times his Principal came to their house to talk to him and his parents about him coming back to school and how important it was for him to graduate even if it took a little longer. Dad told us if it had not been for his Principal that he probably would have given up. Dad was the first one in his family to graduate from High School.

 

Leeland Johnston Golightley

Note: Updated to include Principals name & scan of diploma. 

9/11

 

9/11/2001

 Today I decided to write not about my ancestor's stories but about my memory of 9/11. One way to never forget is for us to write down our memories.  I wasn't there but it is a historical event that I will never forget. My grandchildren were just babies and do not have their own memories of that day.  But everyone who was old enough to have memories of it, remember exactly where they were and how they heard about it.

 As I drove to work that morning, I wasn't paying much attention to the radio until I heard that a plane had crashed into a building.  I didn't hear where or exactly when though I learned minutes later that the first plane had just hit the twin towers.  Before we could pull out the large program TV at work, the second airplane had hit. For awhile we had the TV pulled out into the public area of the library, but as the day went on we realized that parents were bringing their children to the library to get them away from their TVs at home.  We pulled the TV back into a work area and left it there for the next couple of days, turning it on and off depending on our state of mind.

 When we heard that a plane had hit the Pentagon, I realized that two of my nieces and a nephew's father worked at the Pentagon.  I called my sister to find out if she had heard from her children and if she had any news about her ex-husband.  It took most of the day for her to find out that he was on the opposite side of the Pentagon and was okay.

 My supervisor had family in New York.  Her uncle worked on Manhattan Island near the Twin Towers. It took him almost 24 hours to make the normally one hour trip to get home.  The ferries were full and he had to walk across a bridge where he eventually found a ferry to take him home. Her aunt could not reach him by phone as the phone service was in chaos. However, eventually she was able to talk to both her uncle and aunt. They could both talk to her in Dallas but could not talk to each other.  She relayed messages between them the entire time he was trying to get home. She was also able to keep other family members updated on how the family in New York was doing.

 It seemed that we were all in shock for days wondering if something else was going to happen and in disbelief that such an horrendous act had happened in America.  It seemed that despite the Oklahoma bombing by an American only 6 years earlier, we only then really understood what it meant to know terrorism could happen here.

Education Transforms Generations

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 37
Back to School
#52ancestors

 

I've written about my Grandpa before because he was a huge influence in our family. According to the 1940 census, he only completed the 8th grade which wasn't unusual in the 1910s when he would have been going to school.  What was unusual was his attitude toward education.

 Grandpa was adamant that all of his children get an education, even the girls. It was unusual for a father to allow his girls to go to college back then much less demand it. He worked hard to make sure that they all went to either college or business school for at least one year before they got married. His son went on to get not only a college degree at East Central University, but also studied at Notre Dame and earned a Master's degree at the Carnegie Institute as a mathematician.  Two daughters went to college for a year before dropping out to get married with one of them finishing her degree after her children were grown.

The youngest two daughters went to business school which was an excellent choice as both married men who owned their own businesses. They were partners in the businesses and played a key part in their success.

 I have wondered if Central High school being so close played a part in his decision to buy the farm nearby. But when his oldest daughter was a freshman in high school, he saw some kids making out in the back of the school bus. He decided then that it wasn't the place for her to go to school so she went to live with his parents and go to school in town. Ironically, that is where she met her future husband, though they didn't get married until after she finished that first year of college.

Grandpa's attitude about education affected not only his children but also his grandchildren and great-grandchildren as many of them earned college  degrees in various fields. He probably didn't think he had much influence when he talked to the grandchildren about going to college for at least one year, but he did. Some of those grandchildren who didn't seem to listen, went onto get degrees later in life. Education really does transform lives.

Life on the Farm: Gladys & Thomas Osa McCarley

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 36

Prompt: Labor
#52ancestors

Life on the Farm

Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894. It was created to honor the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers. It seems only right to talk about the laborers in our family this weekend.  Most of the members of my family were farmers, so while there doesn't seem to be much to write about, they fed their families, often sold their produce to others, moving when they needed to move.

My Grandpa McCarley was one of those men. He worked hard and moved from being a tenant farmer to owning his own land and farming for himself. Before and after owning his own land, he worked on the railroad and in the oil field, made pies in a restaurant, and other jobs. Eventually, he bought some land between Marlow and Lawton, Oklahoma very near Central High School. A  small community built up around the school and many years later incorporated as a town named Central High.  When Grandpa bought the land there was a small tank that rarely went dry for the few horses and cows. The tank was the center of many of the adventures and happenings on the farm.

Grandpa had a gift that he may have inherited from his Father which manifested in several ways. One way was that Grandpa was a water witcher.  He often helped neighbors and others in the area to find water on their land, but no matter how many times he walked his own land he wasn't able to find water.  The water for the tank must have come from very deep underground. There was a well on the far north east corner of the land, far from the house, but there were never lines laid to bring water to the house. Grandpa dug several wells around the house but they were dry. His gift that helped so many others was not able to find the water they needed near the house.

 All of the children worked on the farm. They helped with hauling water, branding, hoeing, picking cotton, feeding the chickens, and cows and all the other chores that had to be done to keep a farm afloat. Everyone developed a strong work ethic, whether they worked outside or inside the home making sure that there were good meals, clean clothes, and a comfortable place to sleep.

When we moved out into the country, the one thing my mother refused to have on our one acre "farm" was chickens.  One of my mother's jobs growing up was feeding the chickens and gathering eggs. She hated the chickens, having been chased many times.  Another favorite job was milking the cows. The evening milking came at just the wrong time when she was dating. She couldn't milk the cows before she got ready for a date because that was too early and if she waited until after milking the cows, then her date would get there before she was ready. I'm sure it was a pretty picture to watch her pick her way across the barnyard to milk the cows in her old boots and party dress tucked up out of the muck. Then hurrying back to finish getting ready.

When she was younger, most Saturdays the family would load up and go into town. They would go to the store if they needed flour or other types of supplies and visit family that lived in town. They didn't get treats very often, because Grandpa said there wasn't money for foolishness. One Saturday, the billboards at the theatre got his attention and he decided a special treat was in order for everyone.  During that time, the movies were shorter and would end in a cliff hanger. The cowboy hero would be hanging off a literal cliff or maybe was headed into an ambush. It was always very exciting. The next Saturday, the movie would take up where the last one finished. For many Saturdays after that, they would go to the movies every Saturday.  It was a welcome break from the farm labor. 

 Gladys and Thomas Osa McCarley  

One of my favorite pictures of my Grandparents.